MLB Playoffs 2015: Which Wild Card teams have won the World Series?

1997 – Florida Marlins

It only took three seasons for a Wild Card team to step up and lay claim to a World Series title. Fittingly enough, the first team to do so was also relatively young in age, having been formed just a year earlier. In fact, the expansion involving the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies were part of the influence from which the league decided to realign and add the Wild Card.

The 1997 Florida Marlins were in just their fourth year as a Major League franchise when owner H. Wayne Huizenga decided to go for broke and signed free agent Bobby Bonilla and traded for outfielder Cliff Floyd to bolster a line-up that already featured Moises Alou, Charles Johnson, and Edgar Renteria. Coupled with mid-season acquisitions Darren Daulton, Craig Counsell, and Matt Treanor, the Marlins had a formidable line-up built for them.

Despite those additions, the Marlins still finished second in the division, a cool nine games behind the Atlanta Braves. Despite that, Florida ran right through the the San Francisco Giants, sweeping them in the best of five series in the NLDS. The Marlins then dispatched the division-champ Braves four games to two in the NLCS, setting up the team’s first ever World Series appearance.

The 1997 World Series remains one a classic to this day. With the upstart Marlins facing off against a large favorite in the Cleveland Indians, the two teams traded wins back and forth, making Game Seven the win or go home game. It was only appropriate that it came down to extra innings, with the Marlins capturing the title on seeing-eye single off the bat of Renteria and the glove of Indians’ pitcher Charles Nagy.

Next: 2002 - Anaheim Angels